Ellen Barkin

Ellen Rona Barkin (born April 16, 1954) is an Emmy Award-winning and Golden Globe Award-nominated American actress.

Barkin was born in the Bronx, New York to a chemical salesman and a hospital administrator at Jamaica Hospital, and raised in a Jewish home.

She received her high school diploma at Manhattan's High School of Performing Arts. Barkin then attended Hunter College and received her degree in history and drama (a double major). At one point she wanted to teach ancient history. Barkin continued her acting education at New York's Actor's Studio. According to Time she studied acting for seven years before landing her first audition.

She appeared in several successful films including the thrillers Sea of Love, opposite Al Pacino (1989), and The Big Easy (1987) with Dennis Quaid.

Barkin also appeared in the theatre in New York, mostly off-Broadway plays. New York Times critic Frank Rich summarized her performance in the play Eden Court this way: "If it were really possible to give the kiss of life to a corpse, the actress Ellen Barkin would be the one to do it. In Eden Court, the moribund play that has brought her to the Promenade Theater, Miss Barkin is tantalizingly alive from her bouncing blond ponytail to the long legs that gyrate wildly and involuntarily every time an Elvis Presley record plays on stage."

She has also done work in made-for-television films like Before Women Had Wings (1987) and The White River Kid (1999). Currently she voices the start of each Theme Time Radio Hour with host Bob Dylan on XM's "Deep Tracks."

In 2005 she set up a film production company with her brother George and her ex-husband, billionaire investor, Ronald Perelman. She is currently (2007) suing Perelman for $3.4 million in investment funds he reportedly promised to invest, but has yet to deliver.

Barkin is the mother of two children, Jack (born 1989) and Romy Marion (born 1992) from her first marriage, to actor Gabriel Byrne, which ended in 1993 in an amicable divorce.

She has a brother, George Barkin, who was formerly the editor in chief of National Lampoon and High Times.

In 2000 she married businessman Ronald Perelman, but according to New York Magazine the marriage ended in a messy divorce in 2006 with Barkin receiving $40 million.

Emmy Awards Wins
- Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for: Before Women Had Wings (1997).

Other Wins
- Golden Satellite Awards: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television, for Before Women Had Wings (1997).
- Sant Jordi Awards: Best Foreign Actress, for The Big Easy (1987), Barcelona, Spain.

Golden Globes Nominations
- Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical, for Switch (1991).
- Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV, for Before Women Had Wings (1997).